Category: shopping

I now have a toddler, mostly, when she’s not being lazy anyway.
Which of course meant we needed to buy her a pair of decent shoes.

So we went off to a well known British shoe store in Richmond. Where the kids department is on the first floor and there are NO lifts.
Whoever came up with that setup is clearly a genius….
Having to leave the buggy next to to the till, along with the other buggies there, we traipsed upstairs to get shoes fitted.

As a rule, this particular retailer doesn’t like to sell shoes if your child isn’t walking yet, so they asked me about Emmas walking skills, and LO and behold, kiddo refused to prove she could actually walk. Choosing instead to crawl everywhere or just generally cruise.

Until she saw the shoes on the shelf, which promptly turned into a game of “mama, I throw these shoes, then you pick them up and put them back so I can throw them again!”

Picked a pair of shoes (from 2 choice styles and 4 colour schemes) and it immediately bugs me that children’s shoes for new walkers are so limited. My choice was a pale gold, a pale pink, a purple with multicolour dots, and white with pale purple-pink dots. That’s it. That was my choice.

Shoes that don’t go with most of the clothes she has. £26 for a pair of shoes, that go with maybe 2 outfits.

Why can’t they just do a plain black or white style shoe? Black goes with everything!

So, we have shoes now, for the next 2 months anyway. Then I need to go back and do the whole thing again.
This time I’ll go to Staines, where everything kid related is on the ground floor!

I’m pregnant. I have boobs. I want a bra that not only fits and is comfortable but is also pretty and makes me feel like a woman, as opposed to a human incubator.

I recently wrote about how difficult it is to find and buy nice, supportive, comfortable and inexpensive bras, in fact I’ve written on this subject more than once, but recently I wrote about it again and the fact that when pregnant it gets even harder and more frustrating. I eventually found somewhere and I’m in the process of trying them out (stay tuned).

A few days after that post I was approached by Best British Bloggers on behalf of Panache Lingerie, looking for bloggers to review a few of their new Winter lingerie sets. A series of smoking hot bras, on equally smoking hot models. Me, a 7 month pregnant blogger, reviewing sexy lingerie for Panache? Don’t mind if I do.

The Cleo Natasha is a really pretty purple and navy camouflage style under-wire bra, and starts from a D cup (sorry lucky ladies with small pert boobies!) and go up to a J cup (some go up to K cup). I opted for a HH cup taking into account my ever expanding boobs, apparently incubating small humans means growth not just in the tummy area, but also, thighs, ass and boobs!

Cleo Natasha close up

I put the bra on and it was comfy. It didn’t dig in or feel awkward and my boobs actually fit in the cups. The straps were wide enough to support the hefty weight of my bosoms, but not too wide that it looked un-sexy and best of all they didn’t sink into my shoulders and cause them to look like rivers of bra strap running through two mountains, because lets face it, that look? it’s not sexy at all. It fit just right in the back and didn’t ride up (which is a sign that you’re not wearing the correct sized bra), instead it felt comfortable. The only thing I didn’t like was the label, as it felt scratchy across my skin, but that’s easy enough remedied with a sharp pair of scissors.

The bra itself was a little big in the cups, but that’s OK because I’m expecting to expand a little anyway, so come 2 months down the line it will fill in nicely. The under-wire doesn’t dig like you’d normally expect it to and over-all it was very comfortable to wear and it felt supportive.

Over-all it met all of my criteria. It was comfortable, supportive and nice looking and best of all it was affordable* and when I’m less pregnant and my boobs are a stable size again I’m definitely going to treat myself to a few more in this range.

The Cleo range of lingerie by Panache can be purchased online or in stores across the world and to find an online retailer or shop that will be stocking this range, you can visit www.panache-lingerie.com/retailers/

*this bra was gifted to me by Panache for this review via the kind people at Best British Bloggers

I still can’t quite get over the fact that in 23 weeks (give or take) we will have a tiny baby that depends on us.

Yesterday we went baby shopping for the first time. My parents (who are moving abroad for 6 months) took us shopping so they could get the baby some stuff.

Baby clothing is so incredibly small, and gets even smaller! We mainly got stuff in a 0-3 months size, however there is a tiny baby size (up to 8lbs) and also preemie baby sized (up to 4lbs).
Baby clothes are freaking adorable!

But I noticed that not many shops do outfits that are suitable for both sexes. Everything is either girlie colours of pink/purple or boyish colours of blue and dark green. Even some of the supposedly “unisex” clothing didn’t look as though it’d be suitable for both boys and girls.
This is incredibly hard for us, considering that we aren’t going to find out if Flump is a boy or girl, until the midwife declares it.
It is also amazing how many clothes small people need.
For example, once bathed, powdered and diapered, they need a vest, and socks, then a baby grow (onesie) as well as a cardigan, scratch mittens and booties plus a hat. Then you have to wrap them in a blanket.
You’ll probably have to change them about 4 or 10 times a day (depending on the sick quota or whether or not they’ve done a spectacularly leaky poo).
So despite the fact that we have a huge amount of miniature clothes, we need more.
More baby grows, bibs, socks, little hats, blankets.
Not to mention the mama stuff for Breastfeeding and expressing.
As well as towels and sheets and baby baths and cots and, well, there’s a LOT of stuff.
I’ve no idea where it’s all going to go.
I’m thinking I may need to get rid of some books and downgrade to one bookshelf. *sobs*

I’m sure we’ll find room.
In the meantime, I suppose ill just set up a gift list for my baby shower.

Ok, so the blog title is a lie. I’m not actually selling my worn panties. Although based on the research I just did, it seems as though I’m in the wrong job! Apparently there’s a market out there for used/worn/soiled/musty/wet panties. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

My best friend and I have some really bizarre and strange conversations. We have done since we were 14, which is why, I guess, that we’re such great friends. We can talk about everything and anything and not worry about being judged or ridiculed.

Tonight’s conversation was about jobs. Finding stuff that we really want to do and stuff we really enjoy. I jokingly said she should become an Ann Summers rep, or write erotica, or even became a phone sex operator (they make big bucks!).

I watched a documentary on phone sex operators and most women do it from home, and can make a fair amount of income. Think about it, you spend all day on the phone, you can catch up on your ironing whilst telling someone that you’re not wearing any panties and that you’ve been a naughty girl and need to be spanked. It seems that some men pay big bucks for these types of phone calls. So essentially you’re getting paid to stay home, in your pyjamas, catching up on your ironing and making the odd moan of “you like that?” down the phone. Easy money I’d say. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’d laugh my arse off, I’d totally do that kind of job.

Anyway, I digress. I told my friend that she could probably sell her used panties on eBay. It seems that there’s a market for that too. Mind you, I’m not surprised, if there’s a market for men who want to be sat on by 300 pound women, then why not dirty panties. I even found out that there’s a market for used underwear that’s been squirted with breast-milk. Mommy issues maybe?!?

Think about it, you can get some really nice feminine underwear for as little as £1. (it’s not like you plan to wear it for a long time anyway) You wear the panties,and then someone buys them. On my research I found a woman in the UK who sells her used under garments for £23 a pair. There’s a profit to be made here. And it cuts down on laundry, because you won’t need to wash your pants. You just pop them in an envelope and mail them off.

Somehow I don’t think either of us will change our careers from what we’re doing now to selling our dirty panties on the Internet, but in this economic climate I guess it’s an option.